The Fallout
by Smallbell
Summary: After the P-1 Grand Prix everyone returns to their normal lives, but a lot of people have saw the commercial with embarassing taglines for the team. What is school life going to be like with the whole school laughing at Kanji, and running away from Chie? It is going to take some serious damage control to get back to their normal school lives. Naoto X Kanji, and Yosuke X Chie.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 4 or Persona 4 Arena or any of the characters, etc.

Author's notes: This takes place after the events in Persona 4 Arena. I wrote a fic where Naoto and Kanji fight in P4A, titled "The Hardest Battle" and this will be a continuation from that, but it isn't necessary to read my other fic, I will do flashbacks. Please read and enjoy.

The Fallout

Chie sighs; the walk to school feels like it is taking forever. No one is in any rush to get back to school after being off for Golden week. Who wants to sit at a desk all day after having fun all week? Yukiko swings her bag back and forth as the pair heads towards the school. "It's too bad that Yu-kun couldn't stay longer. I wish he was going to school with us again this year. "She laments.

"I know," Chie echoes. "We'll just have to make the most out of the time he can get here though."

"He said that he should be able to come for part of summer break in a few months."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure what we're going to be doing until then. All the talk about getting the "Investigation Team" back together made sense when Yu-kun was here. But I'm not sure how we're supposed to do things when he is off in the city with his parents."

"I know what you mean." Yukiko sighs.

"I mean it was pretty straight forward last time. Jump into the TV kick some shadow's butt and save whoever got thrown in. But trying to figure who threw Labrys in is a lot more completed."

"We should probably see what Naoto has in mind."

"Yeah, you're right; we can talk about it at lunch."

As the girls walk into the school building Chie bumps into another girl, who is taking off her shoes at the lockers. "Oh I'm so sorry," Chie says. "I didn't see you."

The girl looks up at Chie and her eyes widen. "No, my fault." She says, as she slams she locker shut and runs away with her school shoes still in her hand.

"What was up with that?" Chie asks, Yukiko.

Yukiko shrugs as she pulls off her own outside shoes and trades them for her school shoes. "I don't know. She looked like she was scared of you."

"Now why would she-" Chie gets a far away look on her face. "Oh shit, I had forgotten about that!"

"What?"

"The midnight channel," Chie whispers. "She probably saw it over Golden Week. So much has happened that I'd forgotten about that."

"Oh my, I wonder how many people saw it."

"My guess would be a lot." Chie says, glancing around at the students in the lobby.

As Kanji arrives at school he notices that most of the kids are acting different, looking at him and whispering. He shrugs it off as just his imagination and finds his seat at the back of the classroom. He glances over and sees Naoto already in her seat writing in a notebook. She is almost always reading something, or writing something down between classes and before school. Most of the time he just sits back and watches her, but not sure what has come over him he walks over to her desk.

"Uh… hi, Good morning." He says stiffly as he leans against the desk next to hers.

"Good morning, Kanji-kun."

"So, whatcha doing?"

"I'm compiling notes into a timeline of events leading up to the incident involving Labrys. And what we know about the Kirijo group."

"Oh, I see."

"I figure we could go over it with the rest of the team at lunch and see if anyone has anything else to add."

"Uh, yeah, that's a good idea…"

"Sadly without Yu-sempai here to compare notes I feel as if we are at a disadvantage."

"Yeah, we all wish he was able to stay."

Naoto nods, just as the teacher walks into the class and the bell rings. Kanji gives her a small wave and heads back to his seat. The class takes a while to settle down, for there are students having conversations in every corner of the room. Kanji's eyes glaze over as the teacher starts writing math problems on the blackboard. He glances over at some girls that are giggling and already passing notes; one of them catches his eye and turns back toward the other girl, laughing harder.

"Would you like to share the joke with the class?!" The teacher asks her.

The girl instantly sits up straight as possible and all the humor drains from her face. "No sir!"

With that taken care of the class gets back to its normal routine of boring math problems, and Kanji tries his best to keep up, while Naoto looks board, having already finished the problem on the chalkboard before the teacher is done explaining. Kanji runs his hand threw his hair. _I'll never understand this shit_. He thinks. _I just aint smart enough._

"Yes Kanji!" The Teacher calls out. "What is your question?"

"I uh…. Well… I still don't understand why you'd do that last part."

The teacher sighs and explains the process for solving the problem again, Kanji nods his head as the teacher looks at him, even though he still didn't understand what the teacher was saying. Needless to say, for Kanji the day was already looking like it was going to be a big pain in the ass.

By lunch time Kanji knew that he was the butt of some joke that everyone else seemed to know about, except him. Between classes he caught several groups of kids, boys and girls, looking at him, then laughing. Of course once he went up to them and asked what was so funny they would run off without telling him anything. So by the time Kanji headed up to the roof to meet his friends for lunch, he was not in a good mood at all.

Kanji sees Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko off to the side and walks over to them. "Hey, you guys notice anything weird about the way people are acting?"

"I was just saying that." Yosuke says. "People have been giving me the cold shoulder all day."

"Seriously?!" Chie asks. "You guys don't remember?"

When both boys give Chie blank looks she can't help but sigh and shake her head. "The Midnight Channel showed that commercial for the P-1 Grand Prix, with all of us having embarrassing taglines."

"Oh shit!" Yosuke yells. "With so many other things going on I had forgotten about that. Half the school must have seen it!" Yosuke sits down, hiding his face in his hands.

"That bites…" Kanji says. "But you know I still don't get what my tag line about 'beefcake' was about. What the hell is a beefcake anyway, some kind of meatloaf?"

"Beefcake refers to a well-muscled male model posing for a nude or mostly nude photo." Naoto states calmly as she walks up behind Kanji.

Kanji turns in a flash. "WHAT?!"

Naoto continues in a deadpanned level tone. "From what I understand, it can also refer to male porn for both men and women."

"OH HELL NO!" Kanji shouts, his face bright red. "I aint like that!"

"Well your Shadow was running around a bathhouse in nothing but a towel…" Yukiko says, trying to hide her smile behind her hand.

"Will you guys just drop that?! I told ya all, It aint like that!"

"Hey!" Chie says, her hands in the air. "It's not like we put the taglines on. Mine is pretty bad too, you know. People keep running away from me like I'm going to bite them or something."

Naoto watches quietly as the group of teens gets into a heated debate about who had the worst tagline and can't help but sigh. As she predicted without Yu-sempai here to act as mediator it is nearly impossible to bring this group to focus on their real problem.

"Enough everyone!" Naoto shouts to be heard above the rest of them. "As embarrassing it is for all of us the fallout from that commercial is going to continue for some time, so I suggest we discuss more important things." She hands each of them a copy of the notes and timeline that she was working on before school. "This is what I've come up with about the events surrounding Labrys' high jacking. I've included the information that I was able to get about the Kirijo group's development of Anti-Shadow weapons. I figure it must be someone within the development for those weapons that knew about Labrys to throw her into the TV."

"Will that be a lot of people?" Yukiko asks.

"Sadly yes. The Kirijio Group was working on their humanoid Anti-Shadow Weapons for many years, starting over 15 years ago. And there is no telling if the culprit now is connected directly or indirectly with them."

"So you're saying there is no way we can solve this?" Chie asks.

Naoto sighs. "That may be true. If I had access to all the Kirijo group's records and information I would be able to narrow the list down significantly, but as it stands, we just don't know enough about the background to be able to formulate a concrete theory of the identity of the culprit."

Kanji throws down the papers, "This is just giving me a headache."

Naoto sighs and picks up the papers. "I know for some of you this isn't what you're best at, but I thought that the more people we have looking at this and thinking, maybe one of us will come up with something. I'll be e-mailing a copy of this to Rise-chan and Yu-sempai as soon as I can. I'll also be doing my best to get what information I can about the Kirijo group from my sources, but that may take some time."

"Who knows, with all the resources they have Kirjio-san and Aigis-san could have this all sorted out before we hardly scratch the surface, and we wouldn't even know it." Yosuke says, looking over the papers that Naoto has given him.

"At the very least I think that Kirjio-san will inform us if they manage to capture whomever is behind this, since they did say that they would be targeting Persona users. They wouldn't want us to worry about that. Plus I would be able to tell when they pulled the security detail off of us."

The rest of the group looks up at Naoto in shock. "What security?!" Yukiko asks.

"What do you mean?" Chie asks at the same time.

Naoto looks at each of her friends. "You haven't noticed? Two days after Kirijo-san left Inaba a small group of men in nondescript clothing have been watching us from a reasonable distance. I believe them to be part of the Kirijo group. So far that I've noted they don't fallow us into any buildings to note what we do, but they are making sure we don't disappear for any length of time. I would assume that if one of us were missed they would report it to Kirjio-san."

"You sayin' we have truant officers fallowing us around?" Kanji asks.

"I wouldn't put it quiet like that. But as mentioned we were threatened, and I know that the Kirijo-san and the Shadow Operatives that she works with take the public safety very seriously."

"Damn, I was thinking about ditchin' the last half of classes today." Kanji mutters.

"I doubt that they would care if you were to do so, Kanji-kun." Naoto points out. "But since you have a hard time keeping up with your school work, it would be advantageous for you to stay for all of school."

"Whatever."

"So if we went to Junes and into the TV, as long as we came back at a reasonable time they wouldn't consider that odd, right?" Chie asks.

"Probably." Naoto admits. "Since Junes is the closest thing to a mall here, they would see no reason to think it odd if we spent a few hours there. What do you have in mind, Chie-sempai?"

"As you said, we don't have much of a chance to catch this guy, unless he strikes again. And I want to be ready to kick his butt if he tries anything. I think we should be going into the TV to train and keep up our skills." Chie says, looking around at all of her friends.

"Hell ya!" Kanji says pumping his fist. "If there is one thing I'm good at its kicking some ass!"

Yosuke nods. "I think Chie has a point."

"I agree," Yukiko says.

"The idea has merit, but I think we shouldn't be spending too much time there, or it will start to look suspicious, once or twice a week at most." Naoto says.

"I'll call Yu-kun tonight and ask him what he thinks." Yosuke says.

Everyone nods; Naoto opens her mouth to start talking again, when the bell rings. She closes her mouth instead and sighs. Turning towards the stairs she says "Well we should get back to class."

As the group descends the stairs Kanji finds himself walking just behind Naoto. Looking at her head bouncing up and down he can't help but smile and a slight blush creeps over his face again. As they reach the second floor where their class is they find themselves walking side by side. Before they enter the classroom Naoto turns towards Kanji and stops to look up at him.

"You know Kanji-kun. If you are in need of assistance with any of your school work I would be happy to help you."

"Uh…." Kanji says, taken aback. "What makes you think I ...uh… need help?"

"This morning, even after the teacher went through the math problems, you still looked like you were lost."

"I'm always lost. I'd just drag you down or hold you back if you'd help me."

"Nonsense, reviewing the material is never a bad idea."

"If you say so." Kanji says, looking away and running his hand threw his hair.

Naoto shrugs and heads into the class, with Kanji not far behind. When Kanji sits down his mind starts to race. _Why would Naoto want to help me with my school work? _He thinks. _If I let her help me then she'll know how dumb I am. She already knows I'm stupid, what would it matter. I do need help. But with her next to me I wouldn't be able to think anyways. What if I start to ramble? What if she wants to talk about our fight in the TV? But I want to spend more time with her…._

Kanji's thoughts were interrupted by the Teacher. "Kanji Tetsumi! Please read for us the next paragraph." Kanji looks around startled, and pulls his English book out of his book bag and starts to read what he think is the right page. "You weren't paying any attention were you?" The teacher says.

Kanji swallows the lump in his throat. "Yes ma'am."

"I want a one page essay on my desk after school tomorrow, on the importance of paying attention in class. Now, Naoto Shirigani, will you please read the correct paragraph."

Kanji sits back down and puts his hands in his face. _This day just keeps getting better_, he thinks.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 4, Persona 4 Arena, or Persona 4 Golden, or any of the characters.

The Fallout Chapter 2

The final bell rings and most students can't get out of the classroom fast enough. Kanji however just sighs and lets his head flop down on the desk_. Maybe if I wait long enough I can leave without more people staring and laughing_. He thinks.

Kanji lifts his head just as Naoto approaches his desk. "Kanji –kun," Naoto says. "Would you like some help with today's homework assignments?"

"I uh…. Well I suppose…. Yeah I guess."

Naoto nods. "I will be in the school library. Join me when you're ready."

Kanji watches Naoto leave the classroom, a dopey look upon his face. Once she has turned the corner a small smile creeps onto Kanji's face. He was going to be spending time with Naoto. Of course he'd actually have to do his homework, but it wouldn't be so bad with her help. Maybe after they were done they could go out for ice cream or something; just the two of them.

Kanji gathers up his things and heads to the door, a smile stuck on his face. As he reaches the door his smile evaporates as a thought crosses his mind. _Where the Hell is the damn school library? _

Chie tries not to let her bad mood show as she is putting on her shoes to leave. As far as she is concerned she can't leave school fast enough. She storms over to the other side of the lockers to see if Yukiko is ready to go, but stops as she sees a boy talking to her friend.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't want to go out with you." Her friend is telling the boy.

"But you don't really even know me. Maybe after you got to know me a little…."

"She said no, so beat it!" Chie says from behind him.

The boy backs away from the girls, looking between the two of them. "I'll talk to you later, Yuki-chan." He says before speed walking away.

"Thanks, Chie. That is like the sixth boy to ask me out today. What has gotten into them?"

Chie shrugs and heads out with Yukiko right beside her. "I don't know. People are running away from me, yet you are more popular with the boys than ever."

As the reach the school gate they hear someone calling them. "Chie-chan! Yuki-chan! Wait up will ya?! " Yosuke yells, as he runs to catch up with the girls. " I swear you two are the only ones in our class that are still willing to talk to me. This is almost as bad as when I first moved here."

Chie sighs. "I know what you mean. Everyone keeps getting spooked when I talk to them, like I'm going to bite them or something."

"Oh wait guys," Yuki says, turning around and runs toward the school. "I forgot my notebook!" She yells over her shoulder as she re-enters the school.

Chie rolls her eyes, and leans back against the school gate to wait for her friend. "How can I get people to believe that I'm not scary?" She thinks aloud.

"You could quit yelling and threatening people," Yosuke remarks.

"I don't threaten!"

"Maybe not, but you look threatening when you yell and glare at people with your fists on your hips….. like you're doing right now…."

Chie crosses her arms, then un-crosses them, then just gives up and puts her fist back on her hips. "It's just a comfortable way to stand."

Yosuke shrugs, "If you say so. I just want to know how to get people to like me again. I mean I never had that many real friends to begin with. Now those people that were just my casual friends are ignoring me, or brushing me off."

Chie shrugs and leans back against the gate. "Who do we know that had the most friends?"

"Yu-kun."

"Besides him…. He was like crazy good at making friends… Everyone loves Teddie, and he is now the face of the local Junes."

Yosuke laughs, "Teddie could charm honey from bees without much trouble at all."

"Maybe you should try to be more like Teddie, turn up the charm." Chie suggests.

Just then Yukiko comes up. "Sorry I took so long, another boy asked me out while I was getting my notebook."

"That's what I don't get!" Chie yells, as they all start walking again. "People are avoiding Yosuke and I like the plague, but you have more guys ask you out in one day than all of the last month."

Yukiko shrugs and Yosuke speaks up. "Well she was tagged as 'the unconquerable princess snow black.' Guys like a challenge and I think most guys took it like you wanted guys to compete for your hand."

"That's a whole load of bull crap." Chie yells.

Yosuke shrugs. "Well that's how a lot of guys think."

"Well I wish I could give some of those guys to you, Chie. " Yukiko remarks.

Chie stops in her tracks. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Yosuke asks.

"That's the answer….. all I have to do is get a boyfriend and people will see I haven't discarded my womanhood and that I'm not scary."

"Oh that's all you have to do…. Well good luck with that." Yosuke laughs, and starts walking again.

Chie catches up with him and steps in his way. "But I don't really need a boyfriend; I just need some guy to pretend to be my boyfriend."

"Oh no." Yosuke says, backing up. "I am not going to pretend to be your anything."

"Come on," Chie pleads. "I think it could really help both of our situations. You dating a local girl may just be what you need to show that you're not 'Captain Resentment.'"

"Hey I can fix my social life without you!"

"Come on, Yosuke! It's not like you have any better ideas. Besides it won't be too bad. We hang out already, so we will just do it more often in publish and maybe hold hands once in a while. No biggie. It's not like I'm asking you to marry me."

"Oh no, I'm not getting roped into one of your crazy plans. Besides I can't see how this will really help get my social life back."

"Oh come on!" Chie says. "It's worth a try. I think it would work."

Yosuke stops and looks at Chie with a thoughtful look on his face. "I may consider doing this, but we have to set some ground rules."

"Ok," Chie says. "Fine by me. What did you have in mind?"

"First off, you have to stop kicking me. As long as this 'arrangement' is going on you can't kick, hit or punch me. Got it!"

"What! I don't hit you." Chie says, raising her fist.

Yosuke steps away and points to her raised fist. "You've kicked me so many times in the family jewels I don't think I'll ever be able to father children."

"Fine! I won't hit you."

"Or kick me."

"Or Kick you…."

"Or punch me."

"Fine fine fine. I won't do any of that. You happy?"

"Second, I don't want to have to pay for everything. We switch off who is paying every time we go out together. "

"I suppose that's ok."

"Third, I want a kiss."

"WHAT!? No way."

"Just one kiss, after our third date. On the lips."

"That's crazy! No way!"

"Ok then, find someone else to pretend to be your boyfriend." Yosuke says, walking off.

Chie growls to herself and looks over at Yukiko, who has been trailing behind listening to Yosuke and Chie's conversation. "Can you believe him?"

"It's just one kiss." Yukiko points out.

Chie glares across at her friend.

"Is there anyone else you could ask?" Yukiko suggests.

"Maybe Ted, but I think he'd ask for more than a kiss. I'm good friends with Kou and Daisuke, but I don't think either of them would agree. They may even get the wrong idea and want to make it serious. " Chie sighs and runs to catch up with Yosuke.

"So change your mind?" Yosuke asks a grin across his face.

"Alright, one kiss. But it can't last longer than three seconds, and no tongue."

"Five seconds, and I get to put my arm around you."

Chie looks back at Yukiko who is following them. "Ok, but you have to promise to keep your hands to yourself."

Yosuke looks at Chie in shock. "What do you mean by that?!"

"Your….. you…. Your hands can't touch any part of me….that….. that's covered by clothes."

Yosuke rolls his eyes. "Fine. Do we have a deal then?"

Chie sighs and sticks out her hand. "Alright, deal?"

Yosuke grabs her hand and shakes. "Deal."

They both look over at Yukiko. "You're our witness," Chie says. "If he breaks any of the rules then you help decide what he has to do to make up."

"Hey! Then the same goes for you. You have to follow all the rules too."

Chie rolls her eyes, "Yeah yeah, but once I get my social life back in order we are 'breaking up' got it."

"Fine by me, I don't want to pretend to be your boyfriend for any longer than I have to. Now I have to get to Junes. My shift is starting soon." Yosuke says, as he heads off.

Chie turns to Yukiko. "I hope my idea works."

Yukiko shrugs. "I don't know. It may take a while for things to get back to normal around here. You may end up pretending for longer than you think."

"I don't care as long as it works."

After wondering around the school for ten minutes, Kanji spots a boy with thick glasses lugging a large stack of books through the hall. Smiling at his good luck Kanji approaches the kid. "Hey kid!"

The boy turns and drops all his books so that he can protect his face. "I don't have any money! Please don't hurt me…."

Kanji sighs and rolls his eyes before stooping down to pick up the dropped books. "Calm down. I don't do that shit. I was just wanting to know where the Library is."

"The library…."

"Yeah! Aren't ya headed there?"

"Uh….um… yes."

Kanji shoves half of the stack of books at the confused kid and picks up the rest. "Well lead the way!"

The kid turns around, his eyes wide and his back strait and walks toward the Library as if he was on a military death march. Once there Kanji sets the books he was carrying on the first table he sees before mumbling thanks to the terrified kid, who promptly faints next to the table.

Kanji doesn't notice the kid, he only has eyes for Naoto across the room. She is sitting at one of the school computers, her eyes locked with the screen. Kanji can't help but smile as she bites her lower lip in thought. He always thought she looked really cute when she did that.

"Hey Naoto-kun," He says, as she steps up next to the computer.

"Hello, Kanji-kun. I was starting to wonder if you had decided not to come." Naoto says, without looking from the computer screen.

"Well, I had to uh…. You know… take care of some things. "Kanji mumbles.

"I just finished sending Yu-sempai a copy of the data that I gave everyone at lunch, with my theories and editorials. Hopefully he will be able to come up with some ideas."

"Yeah," Kanji says, rubbing the back of his head. "Sempai has always been good with that kinda stuff."

Naoto sighs, and turns from her computer. "Since now I can think of nothing else to do at the moment, short of hacking into the Kirijo database, we might as well get working on our school work."

"Yeah good idea!"

Naoto steps away from her computer and looks over toward the library entrance where a small crowd has gathered. "I wonder what's going on over there."

Kanji glances over and sees the nerd that he followed here laying on the floor with several people around him, and he blushes slightly. "I dunno. How about we get started on our homework?"

Naoto nods and sits down at a table and pulls out her math book. Kanji sits next to her, a smile across his face. Despite being distracted by Naoto's presence they managed to finish the homework without too much difficulty. Naoto just had to explain every step of each new type of problem.

"I don't know why, but when you explain it I understand it. But when the teacher does, I just don't get it." Kanji says running his fingers through his hair.

Naoto shrugs, "No problem. You can ask for help anytime."

"Thanks."

Naoto stands and looks around. "It seems that most of the other students have left."

Kanji looks around as well. He hadn't noticed that the library was nearly empty. All of his attention had been on Naoto or their homework. "Yeah, I guess it's kinda late."

They both walk in silence until they leave the school grounds. Kanji keeps looking down at Naoto, then away with a blush on his face. "Well I uh… I'll uh… walk ya to the bus stop."

"That really won't be necessary."

Kanji just shrugs, but continues to walk next to Naoto. "It's ok. Not like….. Not like I have nothin' better to do."

"While we are presently walking together I have some questions." Naoto says, looking straight ahead.

Kanji glances around and rubs the back of his head. "I uh…. Well… watcha wanna know."

"During our recent excursion into the television when we were matched to fight—"

"I told ya to forget about that!"

"I am still puzzled by your actions. Why did you just surrender and refuse to fight me?"

"I uh…. I dunno."

Naoto stops, and pulls on Kanji's arm to stop him as well. "I don't believe you're being completely honest with me?" She says, looking up into Kanji's blushed face.

"I uh…. Will um…." Kanji looks back and forth, anywhere but at Naoto. "IthinkI'mlatefordinner. Gottogo!" Kanji says in a rush then dashes down the floodplain.

Naoto watches her friend run away, her eyebrow furrowed in thought. _Kanji's actions are quite perplexing._ She thinks. _What could he be hiding? _

Author's notes: If any of you are confused about what Naoto is talking about, I am referring to my fic The Hardest Battle, where Kanji and Naoto fight in P4 Arena. If you haven't read it I think you should. I hope you all have laughed and enjoyed this chapter. Review are always welcome and make me smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's notes: Thank you all for your reviews. I hope you like this new chapter. Please review and let me know what you like. I find writing humor to be hard for me at times. I surprised myself by how fast I got this chapter written.

Fallout Chapter 3

Kanji arrives at school, moments before the bell rings. If people can't see him, they won't laugh at him. Maybe he can just avoid people until everyone forgets about that "Beefcake Emperor" thing. He slides into his seat near the back of the classroom and glances around. Naoto is across the classroom near the front. She is writing in a notebook, only looking up once the teacher starts to speak. _Speaking of people to avoid._ Kanji thinks. _But the problem is I don't want to avoid Naoto. I enjoy spending time with her, and gazing at her, and imagining her in….._ Kanji cuts that thought short before he ends up with a nosebleed in the middle of class.

"Kanji Tatsumi." His teacher calls out.

"Here!"

"I wasn't taking role…." His teacher says. A snicker of laughter rolls through the classroom. "I was asking if you could identify this kanji for me."

Kanji's face reddens and he looks up at the board. He squints to see the kanji that she is pointing to. "I uh….. I dunno."

The teacher rolls her eyes, "These are your new vocabulary kanji for the week. I want all of you to copy them, and look up their definitions in your text books."

Kanji sighs and pulls out his notebook. He glances around, he can swear that he can still hear giggling. He looks up, and sure enough two girls have their heads bent together and are glancing his way and laughing. Anger builds up in Kanji, but tries his best to ignore them and copy the kanji from the board.

Meanwhile Chie's class is out on the sport field having gym. As luck would have it, Yukiko and Chie are on opposite teams. Yet somehow Chie got put on the same team as Yosuke.

"Why do I have to be the goalie?" Chie complains to Yosuke, who is nearby as defender. "I don't even like soccer."

Yosuke shrugs. "Beats me." Yosuke glances over at the other defender, who is keeping an intense eye on the ball, even though it is on the other end of the field. "You know Chie, I was thinking about what you said yesterday."

"Yeah, what about it."

"I was thinking maybe you'd like to go out to ice cream after school with me, today."

Chie shrugs. "Sure."

Just then the ball starts coming towards their end of the field. The other defender intercepts the opposing team, and Yosuke trails after them. After a short scuffle the ball is once again sent back towards the other end of the field.

Yosuke comes limping towards the goal and sits down. "That guy kicked me."

Chie shrugs, "So, it happens."

"No I mean on purpose. I wasn't anywhere near the ball and he just up and kicked me in the leg." Yosuke says, rubbing his shin.

Chie shrugs. "Well ya better get up, the balls headed back towards us."

Before Yosuke can get back on his feet the ball sails through the air and hits Chie in the head and bouncing into the goal. "I think I see what you mean." Chie says, rubbing the side of her head.

Once the lunch bell rings Kanji speeds out of the classroom, stopping only to grab his lunch out of his locker, before sitting under a tree near the edge of school grounds. After Kanji finishes about half his lunch a thin first year boy with a wide smile walks towards Kanji.

"Hi!" The boy says.

Kanji glances up, swallows his mouthful. "Uh hi."

"Can I share your shade?"

"Uh….Yeah… I guess so." Kanji shrugs. _At least not everyone is avoiding me._ He thinks. _But I don't even think I know this kid._

The boy sits down next to Kanji, closer than really necessary. "My name is Taku Meto."

"Uh….hi….. I'm Kanji Tatsumi." Kanji replies.

"I know." Taku says, smiling. "I made some cookies to go with my lunch, you want to share."

"Uh… well um…. Yeah…. Uh… why not."

Taku opens his bento and spreads out and small handkerchief on the ground and starts to unpack his lunch. He sets the cookie down next to the rest of Kanji's lunch, with a smile. Kanji is back to shoving food into his mouth, ignoring the kid.

"I uh…..thanks," Kanji says around a mouth full of food.

"You know I think I want to get to know you."

"Uh…. Why?" Kanji asks, taking another bite.

Taku grins and bats his eyelashes. "I've always been interested in the bad boys."

Kanji spits out the rice. "What?!"

"I'm into bad boys. I was hoping that I would be your type."

Kanji glances around his face flushed. "Hell no! I ain't gay!"

Taku gives Kanji a shy smile. "Come on. Your secret is out, no reason to hide in the closet anymore."

"You got me wrong," Kanji says gathering up his lunch, minus the cookie.

"If you say so," Taku says, with a smirk on his face.

Kanji heads back towards the school, trying his best not to run. He shoves his half eaten lunch in his locker, no longer having any appetite. He closes his locker and rests his head against the cold metal. _What the Hell am I going to do about that kid_?! He thinks.

"Kanji-kun, are you ill?" A voice asks from behind him.

Kanji turns to see Naoto standing nearby with a concerned look on her face. "Uh, hi Naoto-kun." Kanji says, rubbing the back of his neck and blushing. "I'm fine, nothin' wrong."

"I see." She says, a doubtful look on her face.

As she starts to turn away Kanji finds that his hand is reaching out towards her. "Hey um….. I uh…. Sorry I kinda ditched ya yesterday."

Naoto nods, "Apology accepted."

"Well…. I uh…. You know I kinda need some help with…. The vocab kanji from this morning."

Naoto nods, "I will meet you in our classroom. I can help you while finishing my lunch. I was just headed to the restroom."

Kanji smiles and nods before heading into his classroom, he didn't even notice the snickers that followed him. By the time Kanji dug out his notebook and text book Naoto had returned. She starts nibbling at her lunch while standing next to Kanji's desk. "So what the trouble?"

"I uh….. I'm… kinda having a hard time finding the definitions in the book."

Naoto takes a bite of her food and glances at Kanji's notebook. Her brow furrows for a moment. She then sets down her food and picks up Kanji's pencil and starts to erase the kanjis. "You've written them down wrong. No wonder you were having trouble." Naoto then proceeds to write the correct kanjis as well as the pronunciation. "You should be able to find the definitions much easier to locate now."

"Thanks."

"No problem." Naoto says, picking up her food and heading back towards her seat to finish her lunch.

Kanji watches her go, enjoying the view of her backside. When she sits down he shakes his head slightly, and looks down at his notebook. He has work to do. He promised his mom that he'd do better this year.

Yosuke limps across the roof and sets his steaming bowl of noodles down next to Chie, who is already eating her ramen with gusto. "Why ya limping?" Chie asks. "Your leg can't still hurt that bad from soccer this morning."

"No some girl stepped on my foot while I was in line to get the hot water for my ramen. I swear she did it on purpose too!"

"Come on, it could have been an accident." Yukiko says.

Yosuke rolls his eyes. "I mean I could handle being ignored, but people seem to be going out of their way to be mean to me."

Chie shrugs and continues to eat her noodles. "Don't know what to tell ya." She says, around a mouthful of food.

"You know Chie, it's really disgusting when you talk with your mouthful."

"Hey!" She says, raising her fist.

"No hitting, remember." Yosuke says, pointing to her raised fist. "Besides don't you think I'm being hurt enough by other people as it is?"

Chie rolls her eyes. "So when is our first date?"

"Ice cream; after school, remember?"

"What? That's not a date."

Yosuke shrugs, "Us alone, walking around the park holding hands and eating ice cream. Sounds like a date to me. Besides you've already agreed to it."

Chie groans, "Fine."

After school Kanji opens his locker to find a small bag and a note. He opens the note to read it. "Kanji—you forgot your cookie. I'll be around when you're ready. Call me. 555-987-6543. –Taku" He rips the note in half then shoves it and the small bag into his backpack, not caring if the cookie gets smashed to bits. He walks out of the school in a huff, not noticing Chie and Yosuke standing at the gates.

"All I'm saying is that if you want people to notice we might as well start holding hands now, by the school." Yosuke says, holding out his hand. Chie looks down at his hand as if it was a snake that could bite her at any moment. "This was your idea." Yosuke reminds her.

Chie sighs, and reaches out to hold his hand. It is warm and seems to fit perfectly with hers. She glances over at his smirking face. "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"Maybe I am, but it was still your idea." He says, as he pulls her along. "You know though, it doesn't look very convincing if you stand so far away from me."

Chie takes a half step closer to Yosuke. "So, you said you want to get ice cream."

"Yeah, I've seen an ice cream truck stop near the park a few times. I figure if we walk around for a while we should spot it."

"Fine," She says, as Yosuke leads her off toward the park.

The walk around the park, after a while Chie starts to relax and seems to have forgotten that she is even holding on to Yosuke's hand. As they near the playground Chie looks over at the swings. "You know when I was a kid the swings were my favorite. It almost felt like I was flying sometimes."

"Well let's see how high we can get you." Yosuke says, dropping his book bag on the grass and pulling Chie towards the swings.

"Don't be silly, it's for little kids." Chie protests.

"Come on, it'll be fun."

Chie sighs and sets her bag down next to Yosuke's. He pushes her into the swing and takes hold of the chains. "You ready?"

Chie nods and Yosuke starts to push the swing. Within a few minutes he has her swinging so high that her head is past the top bar and she is laughing uncontrollably. Yosuke can't help but smile at her joyful laugh. "Hey, I'm gonna jump." She warns Yosuke.

Yosuke steps off to the side and watches as Chie bounds off the swing, flying through the air to land in the sand. He can't help but giggle to himself and think_. I bet she has no clue what a great view I got of her tight bike shorts when her skirt flew up**.**_ He steps over to where Chie landed and holds out his hand. "I told ya that you'd have fun."

"I don't think I've ever been that high up before."

As Yosuke helps Chie up he hears the music of the ice cream truck. "Hey, right on time." He says, pointing to the truck pulling up. Still holding on to her hand he walks over and picks up his bag before headed towards the ice cream truck. "So what kind do you want?"

"Just a chocolate cone." Chie says.

Yosuke lets go of Chie's hand to get his wallet out of his bag and walk up to the truck. "A chocolate cone, and a vanilla cone please." He says, handing up a bill.

The driver takes the money, gives Yosuke the change and the two cones. Yosuke smiles over at Chie as he brings her the ice cream. "Here you go. How about we sit on that bench while we eat these." He says, nodding towards a bench along the path.

Chie nods in agreement and skips over to the bench and sits down. Yosuke sits down next to her and drapes his free arm over Chie's shoulders. Chie stops licking her ice cream a moment and glances down at Yosuke's arm across her shoulders. His hand is handing down, only inches from her breast. If he wanted to he could 'accidently' grope her. "Remember what I said about hands?"

"Hey my hand isn't anywhere it shouldn't be." Yosuke says.

"Just keep it in mind." Chie warns.

Yosuke just smiles and licks his ice cream.

Chie rolls her eyes at him and continues to enjoy her ice cream. "So what are we going to do next?"

Yosuke shrugs, "I dunno."

Chie huffs, "Some date."

"Well ya can't expect us to go all out right off. So you want to go back to my house and watch a movie?"

Chie thinks a moment then sighs. "Maybe you should just walk me home, I still got homework to do."

Yosuke smiles as he licks his ice cream. "Alright then, sounds like a plan."


End file.
